May 16, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1429

LARKANA, May 15: The Sindh Abadar Board (SAB) on Thursday feared major shortfall in rice production if the province did not get its share in water in time, under the water apportionment accord of 1991.

Gada Hussain Mahesar, central vice-president of SAB, said at a press conference that the paddy sowing season began in the first week of April but Sindh was still waiting for water. “We are already two months behind the season while it has already started in the Punjab,” he said.

He expressed concern over rise in the prices of different fertilisers and alleged that instead of keeping stocks in the warehouses, the companies were piling them up in the dealers’ godowns so that they would sell them to growers at prices of their choice.

He said that the prices of DAP, SSP, TSP and other varieties of fertilisers had doubled within a space of three months and prices of other agriculture inputs had also registered rise.

He called for bringing down prices of fertilisers and ensuring they were available in market. Despite producing 23.20 million tons wheat, 5.92 million tons rice, 51 million tons sugarcane, 14,90 million tons cotton, 3.2 million tons maize and other crops annually, the country was facing grain shortages largely due to wrong policies, he said.

Mr Mahesar blamed corruption, hoarding, smuggling and inefficiency of agriculture department for the food crisis and criticised the policies of former prime minister. Shaukat Aziz exported quality crop of wheat at the rate of $400 per ton and imported inferior quality at $450 per ton, dealing a severe blow to the stocks in the country and causing flour prices to go through the roof, he said.

He urged the government to extend more low-markup loans to the growers and proposed constituting boards for rice, wheat and cotton at federal level having equal representation of growers, industrialists, exporters and dealers from all the provinces.

They would look after the entire agriculture sector of the country under the federal minister and formulate progressive policies, he said and called for an agriculture committee on provincial level to look into the problems of growers and make suggestions for the development of agriculture.

He called for constructing cold storages for vegetables to face emergencies and alleged that some exporters in the Punjab had stocked basmati rice, which they had planned to export after mixing it up with inferior quality rice.